India hosted the world's biggest AI summit this week — 100+ nations, $200 billion in commitments, and enough billionaire handshakes to fill a highlight reel. But beneath the spectacle lies a sharper question: when will it be India’s turn to build AI, instead of just buying into it? Snigdha breaks down the gap between infrastructure ambition and intelligence sovereignty. In other news, Mark Zuckerberg walked into a US courtroom as Meta, YouTube, TikTok and Snapchat face a landmark trial. The alle...
Feb 19, 2026•14 min•Ep. 690
Big Tech is preparing to spend $650 billion on AI infrastructure this year, a figure that rivals national economies. The focus is agentic AI, systems designed not just to generate answers but to execute tasks independently. The vision is software that can read your messages, access your calendar, contact your friends, move money and complete transactions without step by step supervision. In effect, technology that can act in the world on your behalf. To function, these systems require sweeping a...
Feb 18, 2026•14 min•Ep. 689
Anthropic just set up in Bangalore, announcing partnerships across health, education, and government. The "ethical AI" company is positioning itself as the responsible alternative to OpenAI. But the Wall Street Journal revealed the US military used Claude to help capture Venezuela's former president—violating Anthropic's own guidelines prohibiting violence and surveillance. Now the US government wants Anthropic to drop those restrictions entirely. The company is caught between its founding princ...
Feb 18, 2026•16 min•Ep. 688
Over the past six months, Blinkit has been making a structural shift that most customers would never notice. For years, its fresh fruits and vegetables were sourced by Hyperpure, its own parent company Eternal’s business-to-business arm that also supplies restaurants. As Blinkit grew into Eternal’s primary revenue driver, Hyperpure grew with it. In FY25, more than 60% of Hyperpure’s revenue came from Blinkit. Then Blinkit decided to source its own inventory. Hyperpure’s revenue more than halved ...
Feb 16, 2026•9 min•Ep. 687
A mutual fund executive told our colleague something shocking: "SIPs are a problem." Part of the shock came from the fact that it was coming from someone in an industry that was basically built on "SIP sahi hai." Now a new research paper backs up that controversial take—and the findings contradict what millions of Indian investors have been told about systematic investment plans. Turns out the marketing narrative around SIPs has some serious gaps. The math tells a different story. And with small...
Feb 15, 2026•10 min•Ep. 686
On February 12, 2026, Adani Power formed Adani Atomic Energy Ltd, a new unit to generate, transmit, and distribute nuclear power. This follows the SHANTI Bill opening India's nuclear sector to private firms. Both Adani Power and Tata Power, coal giants with long-life thermal plants, now lead the shift. Coal powers 74% of India's grid today. These firms profit big from it. So what happens when they control nuclear's pace too? Snigdha explores the conflict. In other news, top AI researchers have b...
Feb 12, 2026•14 min•Ep. 685
On February 10, 2026, reports said nearly 100 NDTV employees were put on performance improvement plans, often seen as a prelude to layoffs. This comes after the Adani Group acquired NDTV in December 2022 for about ₹600 crore, followed by several high profile exits. A similar moment unfolded at Jeff Bezos-owned The Washington Post last week where hundreds were laid off and multiple sections and bureaus shut. Both Adani and Bezos run highly profitable core businesses. News is not one of them. So w...
Feb 11, 2026•13 min•Ep. 684
In early February, Indian IT stocks crashed 6% in a single day—the worst selloff in six years. ₹2 lakh crore vanished. Wall Street lost $300 billion. The trigger? Anthropic launched Claude Cowork, an AI agent that can organize files, parse spreadsheets, and write reports autonomously. For the first time, AI doesn't just assist—it executes entire workflows with minimal supervision. Investors panicked, and experts coined the term "SaaSpocalypse." But is this really the end of software companies, o...
Feb 11, 2026•13 min•Ep. 683
PhonePe is heading to the public markets as India’s largest UPI player. On 21 January, the company made its IPO papers public, setting up one of the most closely watched fintech listings in years. PhonePe dominates transaction volumes, but it is listing after Paytm, whose 2021 IPO reshaped how investors value payments companies. Since then, Paytm’s stock has fallen sharply from its debut even as its business has evolved. PhonePe is seeking a valuation premium while still reporting losses and fac...
Feb 09, 2026•10 min•Ep. 682
In November, Decathlon began piloting two-hour deliveries across 10 Indian cities. It's a surprising move for a company that just swung into losses—and it raises a question the rest of the sector is watching closely: can the economics of fashion quick-commerce actually work? More than 50 million dollars has flowed into the space in 18 months. At least one startup has already shut down. The problem isn't speed. It's frequency, inventory, and unit economics that refuse to close. Tune in. If you ha...
Feb 08, 2026•15 min•Ep. 681
Karnataka keeps talking about decentralizing tech beyond Bengaluru. Its neighbors are actually doing it. Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and Andhra Pradesh are building tech cities from scratch—tier-2 clusters with land banks, fast-track approvals, and statutory bodies with real power. Major companies are choosing Visakhapatnam and Tirupati over Bengaluru now. The difference? Decision-making authority. Karnataka's development body is stuck in a promotional role while other states hand their institutions ...
Feb 05, 2026•24 min•Ep. 680
Two days ago, the United States said it would cut tariffs on Indian goods to 18%, down from levels that had gone as high as 50%. Markets reacted fast. Stocks rose. The rupee strengthened. The first feeling was relief. It sounded like the trade fight with Washington and Donald Trump was easing. Then more details emerged. U.S. officials said India would commit to buying over $500 billion worth of American goods. They also said U.S. tariffs would stay at 18%, while India would allow zero tariffs on...
Feb 04, 2026•13 min•Ep. 679
Amazon fired 16,000 workers last month. Oracle is set to cut up to 30,000 more. Tech layoffs have increasingly been attributed to AI. But Oxford Economics found something strange: there's no macroeconomic data showing AI is actually replacing jobs or boosting productivity. In fact, output per worker is slowing, not accelerating. So what's really happening? Host Rachel Varghese breaks it down. Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform....
Feb 04, 2026•15 min•Ep. 678
In December, India’s top agricultural research body sent a letter to 74 universities with a clear message: natural farming is now a subject of national importance. Campuses are responding fast, planning new courses to train students for a sector under pressure. Export markets want cleaner food because consumers are paying closer attention to what they eat. In response, agri-input companies are adjusting their products. But Indian agriculture still runs largely on chemical inputs. Farmers face re...
Feb 02, 2026•12 min•Ep. 677
ChatGPT butchers Punjabi with spelling errors and Bollywood-style Hindi bleeding through. Hindi bots trained on newspapers miss dialects like Awadhi and Bhojpuri entirely, while Tamil AI ignores the rich variations between Kongu and Madurai speech. Sure, Gurugram collected ₹200 crore in taxes using Hindi AI calls, but that's because Hindi dominates datasets. Most other languages remain stuck in translation hell. Private companies optimize for speed over nuance, government corpora like Bhashini s...
Feb 02, 2026•13 min•Ep. 676
This week, Goa said it is actively considering a ban on social media for children under 16, inspired by Australia’s new law. Andhra Pradesh has also set up a panel to examine whether similar restrictions could work there. The push reflects rising anxiety around teen mental health, cyberbullying, and exposure to harmful online content. Supporters argue platforms are unsafe by design and impossible to regulate through guardrails alone. Critics question whether bans can keep up with technology or a...
Jan 29, 2026•32 min•Ep. 675
This week, India and the European Union signed a sweeping trade deal that cuts or removes tariffs on over 90% of goods traded between them. The headlines quickly focused on what might get cheaper, from wine and cheese to cars and chocolates. But trade deals do not change prices overnight. Tariff cuts roll out over time and work their way through importers, distributors, taxes, and markets before they ever reach consumers. In this episode, host Snigdha Sharma looks at what past trade deals show a...
Jan 28, 2026•11 min•Ep. 674
Every winter, Delhi chokes. Masks become mandatory, air purifiers work overtime, and life somehow goes on. But beyond the health crisis lies an economic catastrophe most people ignore—until now. Gita Gopinath's recent warning at Davos sparked controversy, but the numbers don't lie: pollution is costing India 1.67 million lives and nearly 3% of GDP annually. Meanwhile, China turned its pollution crisis around in just a few years with ruthless accountability. India has the knowledge and technology...
Jan 28, 2026•15 min•Ep. 673
India’s new data protection law is reshaping how companies talk to customers on WhatsApp. Messages that once felt routine now carry legal weight and are tied to consent, security, and user rights. Since the Digital Personal Data Protection Act became operational, businesses have begun reworking how they collect and manage personal data. That shift has created a fast-growing market for compliance tools, drawing startups and established firms into the same space. As companies rush to avoid heavy p...
Jan 26, 2026•12 min•Ep. 672
When your insurance card suddenly stops working, it is not just a glitch. It is the symptom of a deeper crisis in Indian healthcare. Hospitals say insurers have failed to update reimbursement rates despite medical inflation. Insurers say hospitals are inflating bills and resisting standardization. Millions of policyholders are caught between them, forced to pay out of pocket for care they thought was covered. How did India’s healthcare system end up in this deadlock. And who really decides what ...
Jan 25, 2026•10 min•Ep. 671
When a public electric bus breaks down in India, three agencies get notified. None of them can actually fix it. The buses don't belong to the cities that run them. The contracts sit with central agencies. The warranties belong to manufacturers. When a four-year-old bus stalls because its battery management system glitched, the city logs a complaint, calculates a fine for the manufacturers, and takes the bus off the route. Commuters are left slim pickings. And India's about to deploy thousands mo...
Jan 23, 2026•14 min•Ep. 670
India is building data centres at unprecedented speed to support cloud services, AI, and digital growth. At the same time, cities across the country are struggling with water shortages and repeated contamination of drinking-water supplies. A new United Nations report describes this condition as water bankruptcy. It is the stage where water systems continue to function, but only by drawing down reserves that cannot recover fast enough. In this episode, host Snigdha Sharma looks at how India’s dat...
Jan 22, 2026•13 min•Ep. 669
Sam Altman called ads a "last resort" in late 2024. That day has arrived. OpenAI just announced ChatGPT is running ads—personalised ones based on your conversations. The company spent $8 billion in 2025 alone with zero profit, and an essay predicted they'll burn through cash by 2027. Meanwhile, Google's Gemini is betting on staying ad-free, preserving user trust while ChatGPT strains it. Host Rachel Varghese breaks down the enshittification playbook, why OpenAI's "code red" memo signals desperat...
Jan 21, 2026•12 min•Ep. 668
India has become one of the world’s largest electronics manufacturers, powered by scale, assembly lines, and global contracts. But much of the design, components, and technology still sit elsewhere. In this episode, we look at why the government is now backing electronics components, what India’s EMS firms built first, and what they postponed. As India pushes deeper into the supply chain, the question shifts from volume to ownership. What does it take to move from assembling electronics to truly...
Jan 19, 2026•12 min•Ep. 667
For over a decade, Indian startups have chosen to be incorporated in Delaware and Singapore when raising venture capital. Now India wants to change that with Gift City—a financial enclave designed to compete globally. But can it? We explore why founders still choose Delaware's speed and legal certainty, what Gift City offers to funds but not startups, and the structural gaps that need fixing. Tune in. Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news ...
Jan 18, 2026•14 min•Ep. 666
AI is learning healthcare from systems that are stretched and uneven. In this episode, hosts Snigdha Sharma and Rachel Varghese discuss what tools like ChatGPT Health and Claude for Healthcare could mean in India. We talk about how people already use AI to understand symptoms and reports, how hospitals deal with data and paperwork, and how bias and privacy shape these tools. Tune in. Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscrib...
Jan 15, 2026•24 min•Ep. 665
India’s soda shelves have changed almost overnight. Coke and Pepsi now sell zero-sugar versions of their drinks at prices as low as 10 rupees. The move came after Reliance launched Campa Cola with its own budget zero-sugar option. Now, they are taking over in big cities and small towns alike. But what looks like a health trend is really a business strategy. What is really inside those bottles? And what does it mean for consumers? Tune in. Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’...
Jan 14, 2026•9 min•Ep. 664
Four months after India's nationwide ban on online gambling ads, Meta platforms were still running them—140 in December alone. A Reuters investigation into leaked internal documents reveals this isn't an oversight. Meta made specific calculations about how much enforcement it could afford, and governments worldwide are hitting the same wall. From Malaysia to the Philippines, removal requests pile up while the ads keep running. What happens when a platform decides compliance is negotiable? Host R...
Jan 14, 2026•13 min•Ep. 663
Investing extra money can be confusing, no matter how big or small the amount. What works for someone with Rs 1 crore is very different from what suits someone with Rs 1 lakh or Rs 10 lakh. Experts say everyone should first take care of basic needs before investing. There are many simple, logical, and even unconventional ways to invest. Tune in. Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, ...
Jan 12, 2026•18 min•Ep. 662
India's Fund of Funds for Startups 1.0 is winding down this March—but it's falling short of its goals. Of the ₹10,000 crore mandate, only ₹6,500 crore has been disbursed, and just ₹3,200 crore has actually reached startups. Meanwhile, FFS 2.0 remains stuck in limbo with no guidelines released yet. Despite catalyzing India's startup boom—from 3,000 startups in 2016 to over 200,000 today—the program faces criticism over cheap terms for fund managers, delays, and transparency issues. As the governm...
Jan 11, 2026•13 min•Ep. 661
